Off the beaten path online: Security threats inside and out for 9/11 trial...

Today’s Water Cooler lineup of off the beaten path online stories are: The security around the 9/11 terror trial is being questioned, the Obama administration’s focus on health care reform has distracted the White House and its allies from the country’s unemployment problem, and conservatives are demanding an investigation of SEIU president Andrew Stern.

Hot sauce and a comb were all an al-Qaida suspect in New York needed to nearly kill one of his guards nine years ago. The bloody episode suggests that security worries in bringing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects to trial here could be just as big inside the courthouse as outside.

But political calculations are always on politicians’ minds. The two presidents were urging passage of legislation that has become increasingly unpopular as its provisions become more widely known. They were speaking at a time when Gallup tells us that only 47 percent of Americans think providing health insurance is a government responsibility, down from 69 percent just two years ago.

Americans for Tax Reform and the Alliance for Worker Freedom will deliver a letter to both chambers of Congress and to US Attorney Channing Phillips in Washington DC, demanding a federal investigation of Andrew Stern, president of the SEIU.

Question of the Day

Who should be secretary of state?

About the Author

Kerry Picket, a former Opinion Blogger/Editor of The Watercooler, was associate producer for the Media Research Center, a content producer for Robin Quivers of “The Howard Stern Show” on Sirius satellite radio and a production assistant and copy writer at MTV.